“Salute”: Gayton McKenzie’s ‘One Day, When I’m No Longer a Minister’ Reply To Insult Causes Alarm

• Sports, Recreation, Arts, and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie had an assured response to a bashing social media post
• McKenzie retaliated against a journalist who hit out at him using choice words to describe his apparent ineptitude
• The politician's reply in an X post caused a stir as netizens deciphered McKenzie's cryptic response to his detractor

In what some have interpreted as a cryptic message — or threat — Gayton McKenzie issued a stern warning to a journalist rubbing him up the wrong way.

It played out on social media, where the Sports, Recreation, Arts, and Culture Minister has been a hit of late, for the good and not-so-good.

Gayton McKenzie's reply to insult causes alarm

On the latter, McKenzie seems to have become a target of heated opinion pieces in columns. Other times, he's been the subject of well-framed conjecture about his incompetence for the job in impassioned online posts.

Read also

Gayton McKenzie hails explosive findings in Chidimma Adetshina identity saga: "Arrest should follow"

He responded searingly to one of these after the post's author described his supposed ineptitude in derogatory terms.

McKenzie wrote:

"One day, when I am no longer a minister, I shall answer you. For now, I will abide by the Code of Conduct for ministers. I wish you all the best in going around calling people dumb pr*cks. Salute."

For some, McKenzie's response seemed to have a retribution connotation, given his pedigree as an ex-numbers gang boss.

He directed it to an X user, @Poplak (Richard Poplak), who, according to his bio, is editor-at-large at Daily Maverick.

Poplak took to the platform on Tuesday morning, publishing two posts where he appears to mount an attack on McKenzie.

His first post read:

"Gayton McKenzie is a dumb pr*ck, and he should never have been made a cabinet minister."

Read also

Gauteng traffic cops’ fiery clash stuns Mzansi: “Their days are numbered”

He followed it up a few minutes later, writing:

"[He] is the most openly and rabidly anti-black minister South Africa has had since apartheid. This, for sure, will have an impact on his portfolio, not a good one. He should go back to playing a gangster on Truth Social."

Energetic response to cryptic reply

McKenzie would only respond more than 12 hours later, and the subsequent reply went viral after attracting almost 500,000 views and 7700 likes, in addition to the 750 reposts and over 620 responses it garnered.

Vocal locals had an energetic reaction to the minister's message, insinuating some rude handling.

Briefly News looks at some of the energetic responses.

@VITO_G_Wagon assessed:

"You are threatening a civilian? Yoh."

@social_gator wrote:

"[In] other words, I will unleash my gangster on you."

@wmwchris mentioned:

"Actually, that is a good response."

@BbwMaturity reacted:

"Gayton, bro, there is a saying, 'A lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep'. You [have] bigger fish to fry. [For] some people who don’t like you, you can’t change their opinions."

Read also

McKenzie criticised over vow to apologise if Chidimma's citizenship is valid: “damage is done”

Gayton claps back against 'Afrophobe bigot' label

In related news, Briefly News reported that McKenzie concocted a classic sharp response after unwittingly becoming the target of vicious trolling.

South Africa's Sports, Recreation, Arts, and Culture Minister has become popular for his unfiltered and often controversial remarks.

Source: Briefly News